| Objective |
| Contract assignments for research, analysis, and writing
in the areas of transportation, telecommunications, and computer applications, with
special emphasis on public policy and technology strategy. |
| Summary |
| John Niles, President of Global Telematics, is an
independent researcher, trainer, and change agent based in Seattle, Washington. His
specialty is research, design, planning, and implementation of improvement strategies for
transportation, telecommunications, and economic development. He has worked in these
fields since 1978, beginning in Washington DC and continuing in Seattle since 1982. |
| He is an expert on telecommunications-based mobility improvement programs and policies. He advises
government and business leaders on telecom-transport interaction, including teleworking,
electronic service delivery, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), and traffic
operations management (T-Ops). |
| He has evaluated telecommunications applications projects,
established rural telework programs, and assisted communities large and small to
understand and use telecom and the Internet. He developed one of the first nationwide
computer systems for knowledge management and dissemination. He is a published author,
public speaker, and skilled meeting facilitator. He earned degrees at Carnegie Mellon and
MIT. |
| Selected Project Experience
|
 | Developed “incremental BRT”
as a strategy for transit agencies to improve public transit cost
effectively and quickly in a published, peer-reviewed report for
Mineta Transportation Institute. Follow-on quantification of best
levers for performance improvement conducted with FTA funding in
association with Breakthrough Technologies Institute, Washington, DC.
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| Developed innovative procedures for increasing business
effectiveness through joint consideration of travel and communications options, for the
National Business Travel Association and Lehman Associates. Available as the Travel Value Assessment. |
|
| Created the Regional Freight
Logistics Profile for the Mineta Transportation Institute as a tool for metropolitan
transportation planners to assess and communicate trends in local freight delivery.
|
|
| Conducted pioneering research into how retail market trends
and resulting consumer behavior influence nonwork trips and Transit Oriented Development.
This work resulted in papers for the Transportation Research Board,
the American Planning Association, and Mineta Transportation Institute. Turned into an
available plannning tool, Regional Transportation Reality Check. |
|
| Initiated and led the Mobility Innovations Program at
Bellevue Transportation Management Association. This included development of an "instant ridesharing" project funded by the U.S. Department of
Transportation. |
|
| Led the development of a "Telecommunications
Deployment Strategy" that contributes to traffic congestion reduction, air
quality improvement, and job creation in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. |
|
| Prepared a major U.S. Department of Energy research study of
telecommunications impacts on transportation, titled Beyond Telecommuting, now a popular
full-text research reference on the Internet, http://www.lbl.gov/ICSD/niles. |
|
| Conducted field research, policy analysis, and development
of recommendations for separate working groups doing strategic telecommunications planning
for the States of Idaho, Washington, and Montana. |
|
| Evaluated and improved the Supermarket Cooperative, a U.S.
Government funded telecommunications application project helping small farmer members of
the Rural Coalition, headquartered in Washington DC. |
|
| Facilitated United Nations workshops in Singapore and New
York City, resulting in recommendations for telecom development in emerging nations. |
|
| Provided leadership on business planning, service design,
and marketing of a computer-based messaging and information retrieval system supporting
technology transfer among hundreds of local government offices nationwide. |
|
| John Niles is a widely-read interpreter of how and why
networked communications affects the need for actual travel and meeting. His views have
been quoted in many publications, including Forbes, The Economist, New
York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, and Washington
Post. He has also appeared on PBS TV’s Nightly Business Report and on
National Public Radio's Morning Edition. He has
presented new ideas and research
findings at the Pacific Telecommunications Conference, the World Future Society General
Assembly, the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, and the
Annual General Meeting of the Intelligent Transportation Society of
Canada. |
| He was the Associate Editor of New Telecom Quarterly,
1994-98. He has written many published articles and is co-author of The New Management
(McGraw-Hill, 1976). His latest writing is a chapter titled
"Synergies Between Vehicle Automation, Telematics Connectivity, and
Electric Propulsion" in the book Road Vehicle Automation
(Springer, 2014). |
John Niles is
presently a Research Associate at the Mineta Transportation Institute,
San Jose State University. He has held past appointments as Technology
and Transportation Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute in Seattle,
and Senior Fellow for Telecommunications and Land Use at Center for the
New West in Denver. He was a founding member of the U.S. National
Research Council’s Transportation Research Board Committee on Telecommunications and
Travel Behavior, and was a member of the Transatlantic Thematic Network on Sustainable Transport in
Europe and Links and Liaisons with America (STELLA) formed by National Science Foundation
and the European Union.
Since 2011, he has held the consulting
assignment of Research Director, Center
for Advanced Transportation and Energy Solutions (CATES), a
non-profit think-and-do tank focused on private and public policy to
advance the implementation of a new generation of motor vehicles having
electric motors for propulsion and automated driver assistance
capabilities for greater safety and energy efficiency. |
| Earlier Employment |
| 1974-78: Quantitative analyst, municipal programs,
Mayor’s Office, District of Columbia Government |
|
| 1971-74: Aircraft maintenance control officer, Patrol
Squadron 26, United States Navy (Vietnam era, honorable discharge) |
|
| Status |
| U.S. citizen |
|
| No physical limitations |
|
| Education |
| M.S. Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon University,
1970 |
|
| B.S. Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
1968 |
|
